Yesterday we went to a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) tournament. It’s close to where C and M both live, so we invited them to watch.

The kids on the team had been working pretty hard since the beginning of the year. The tournament consisted of 3 practice rounds with robots (built and programmed by the kids) running an obstacle course and performing tasks with, at best, little to no operator assistance; a research project based on the theme of the competition (this year it was natural disasters); an interview about the team’s understanding of FLL’s core values; and 3 competition rounds with the robots.

C was there before we got there – I wound up getting turned around at one point and was 5 minutes late – and we had a pretty good visit. A spent most of the day with her team. We got to see the project presentation, which the team crushed, the practice rounds and the actual competition rounds.

Toward the end of the afternoon, M came to watch. She got to see A’s team win a 1st place award for best research project. Better still was knowing how much work everybody on the team, especially A, put into the project. For a viable product, no less.